Sophomore forward from Easton earns double-double to help propel Bishops

Going into the Division 3 EMass championship game on Monday night, the Archbishop Williams girls basketball team knew it had a void to fill if it was going to advance to the state final.

Facing Pentucket on the parquet floor at TD Garden, the Bishops had to find a way to put points on the Jumbotron with their 1,000-point scorer, senior Sara Ryan of Quincy, still working through an ankle injury.

That’s when Alana Gilmer answered the Bishops’ call.

The sophomore forward from Easton recorded a double-double with a team-high 12 points and 10 rebounds, while also adding two blocks, to lead Archbishop Williams to a 52-38 win and a berth in Saturday’s state championship against Lee High School (10:45 a.m., DCU Center – Worcester).

Despite the fact that she was the Bishops’ top performer on Monday, Gilmer was more ecstatic for a chance at a championship than she was about her stats.

“This is just amazing,” Gilmer said of the experience of playing at the Garden. “I watch the Celtics play here all the time, and to be able to play here myself has just been incredible. I expect (the DCU Center) to be just like this, but we can’t let up. We still have to go and play.”

Gilmer scored six points in the first quarter, in which the Bishops raced out to an 18-9 lead they would never surrender. She got to halftime with eight points with Williams still ahead, 26-21.

Much of Gilmer’s success against Pentucket can be credited to her size. With a 6-foot frame and the agility and strength to match, Pentucket could do little to keep her outside of the paint.

“That’s her. She performs like that pretty much every game,” said Archbishop Williams coach Jim Bancroft. “She only had 12 points tonight; lately she’s up in the mid-teens to the 20s, but still doing it all. Rebounding, blocking shots, making assists, making steals, doing whatever she needs to do to help the team win. That’s her game.”

Last winter Gilmer was a part-time starter throughout an up-and-down freshman season.

“She had some really good games and then, being a freshman, she’d drop off and disappear,” Bancroft said. “She might have started two or three games in a row, then her performance would go downhill and she’d sit on the bench for a little bit and then she’d come back. She was on and off last year.

“This year she’s just built that consistency into her game already as a sophomore. Right from the beginning of the year, I told her I was amazed (at her progress). Usually when it’s pretty bad as a freshman, consistency-wise, it gets (gradually) better as a sophomore but she’s playing like a senior. That’s huge.”

Page 2 of 2 - Gilmer’s performance helped give the Bishops their first chance at a state title since they won back-to-back championships in 2007 and 2008.

Ryan is the lone senior starter for this group. Gilmer and fellow Easton resident Jaylen Williams are sophomores, and point guard Leah Spencer (Brockton) and Olivia Conrad (Hanover) are juniors.

“I’m so proud of them,” Ryan said of her younger teammates. “They really deserved this, more so than I. They worked so hard, and I can’t wait to see them at it again next year.”